So it turns out the biggest problem with the New York Stock Exchange moving increasingly to electronic trading isn't the end of jobs for specialists, or ruining the Big Board's uniqueness, or any of those other things the traditionalists have argued. It's that on a day when the Dow drops 311.50 points and there are big, worried headlines on all the news site, the classic frenzy-on-the-trading-floor news photo should look a hell of a lot more, well, frenzied than this. Boo.
READ MORE »

• Because not enough Albany politicians are under indictment — only seven indictments among the city's delegation in the last three years, for example — the Feds are now investigating State Senate leader and Republican top dog Joseph Bruno, along with his "private consulting business" and his love of the horseys. [AP, NYDN]
• As if Sheldon Silver would let Bruno have the spotlight alone. The Assembly speaker grabs some attention, too, thanks to the vote he controls on an obscure but powerful state board that's scheduled to vote today and can make or break (or substantially delay) Atlantic Yards. To maximize the excitement, aides claim the speaker hasn't even made up his mind yet. [amNY]
• We're all for brawls on the NYSE trading floor, but choking a trader may be too much. Choking a trader because he's a gloating Eagles fan and you're the son of a legendary Giants owner, well, the jury is split on this one. [NYP]
• Police are helpless to identify the Asian man they found two weeks ago, clad only in pajamas, roaming the streets of the Bronx: John Doe has not been reported missing and doesn't speak English. The police thoughtfully release the information that "the pajamas had the letters G-A-R-F-I" on them. Dare we guess the name might be "Garfield"? Cops. [WNBC]
• Meet Michael Ennes, who runs the "Four-Star Soup Kitchen" and feeds the needy with stuff like endives in basil vinaigrette, wine-simmered bison, and turkey with mango-ginger glaze. He also gives nutrition lectures, at which, the Times reports with uncharacteristic cruelty, "people dozed or babbled." [NYT]
READ MORE »

Oh, poor Dick Grasso. Now he'll have to retire from the New York Stock Exchange with a mere $39.5 million parting gift, after a state-court ruling took $100 million from his retirement package and negged the idea that he was owed another $95 million for wrongful termination. More than anything else, this is very bad news for Grasso, who now might be forced to live out his golden years subsisting on cat food and boiled ears of corn. (Sorry; we saw the new Grey Gardens musical the other night, and we've since been sort of haunted by that diet. And by the fleas. Yuck.) It is, however, very good news for someone else: your next governor, Eliot Spitzer. On Early and Often, Jon Dolan explains.
Grasso Verdict Nice But Not Necessary for Spitzer [Early and Often]
READ MORE »PREV1NEXT